Shredding machine



A. R. ADANSON SHREDDING MACHINE Filed March 12, 1925 3 sheets-sheet 1 ATTORNEYS,

May 1927' A. R. ADAMsoN SHREDDING MACHINE Filed March 12. 1925 3 Sheets-Sheet .2

INVIIINTOR fldamJo/U M ATTORN EYS tion, certain parts being; broken away:

. A'Rrtiunn. anaiv'rso i, OELLOS AneELiis, caiirronuiiii snea' sine imag e Aplplicationfiled 'hiarch 12,1925; Serial no; 15,079.

This invention relates to. a machine; the function of which' is to shred material of any kind. The general object of the inven tion is to produce a machine of simple C0117 struction which will have a relatively large capacity and in which the degree of fineness of the shredding can be regulated as desired; also. to provide a machine'of this type in which the speed and force with Which the material is fed to the shredding. devices can be regulated, and to provide automatic means for, arresting the feeding 'o ieration at a predetermined point.- One of the obje'cts of the invention is to provide a machine of this kind with a shredder or shredder facilitate the replacement and adjustment of the shredding devices; and to provide special means for preventing injury to the shredding devices in case a foreign substance should he accidentally fed to the shredding devices with the material to be shredded Further objects of the invention will-appear hereinafter] i 1 The invention consists the novel parts and combination" ofparts to: be described hereinafter, all of which tontribute to pro: duce an efiicient shredding machine A preferred embodiment of thlevinve'ntion is described in the following specification; while the broad scope of the inventionfis pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a'vertical sectionfthrough a portion of the machine embodying, my inven= Fig. 2 is a plan of the machine shown in Fig. 1, certain parts being broken away and shown in cross section "i Fig. 3 is a side elevation particularly illus'-' trating details'o'f the guidevvays forfeeding a. material to the shredding devices, and also illustrating the automatic means for arresting the operation of thefeedingmechanism] Fig; l is a vertical cross section through one of the'feed carriages; certain parts being shown in elevation. This View particularly illustrates the means for rele'asingthe car? riage to permit it to be moved back or forth along the feed screw, and'also illustrates details of the means for holding the follower will move inwardly toward the drum. The

in its operative or inoperative "position.

F119,; '51s a horizontal cross section taken through two adjacent shredding devices and w ng, ashort portion of'th/g b y of the drum; 1 7 a 1 M ,Fig. 6 is a horizontal section. takenabout on the line 66 of Fig. 1 and particularly illustrating details of the means fol-adjust ing the anglejofthe shredding devices.

In practicing the invention; 1 provide a frame 1 or any suitable construction, the

body of which may bjIIlOLllitQCljLlPOfl short columnsstanding onthe floor; In this frame I, i

I I provide a rotary. member 3. having a p'lui'ality of. shredding devices mounted thereupon, and I provide means for driving the rotary member. and for feeding the material to be shredded to theshredding devices. 'The rotary member 3 is preferably in the. form of a drum carrying 'a' plurality of shredding drum having features of construction Wl' iclr devices & disposed. circumferentially around the-vertical axis of rotation of-ithe drum. The drum ispreferablv carried on a substan tially' vertical shaft 5, and each shredding 'devi'ce'aris preferably in the forin jof an elongated bar 6 (see Fig. The adjac nt I shredding devices are disposed slightly apart so as to'form a ga 7 loetweentheni at which point the shredding operation}takes-place.

This gap permits the material as it is shredded-to pass through the. Wall of the drum;

In the pres nt instancel feed-the material to be shreddedto the drum from the outer side, and for this purpose I provi deia plu rali'tyofaguideways 8 whichare dispos d drumgeach guideway being provided With feeding mechanism 9- for feeding-forward substantially radially from the' axis' of, the

the material inthe guidei'vav. The feeding I mechanisnr9 may beof any suitable cone StILlClZlOm but in any case it s provided with automatic Ineansfor' arresting the feeding inovementat a predetermined point; this is n'ism' through carrying thev feedingv movem'ent'too-far; l y y w In thepresentinstance each, feeding inech anism includes a. feedscrew-lO which ezitends to prei'zentany possible injury to theniechalongitudinally with the guidew'ay 8 (see Fig' Each-feedscrew' is driven through its own individual, clutch ll which is preferably a friction clutch. The feeding lllGClliiIllSlll also includes a carriage 12 having a split nut 13 for engaging the feed screw so thaftin the operation of the machine "the carriage l2:

the guideway "(see Fig-.2). This plate is preferably ineunted-toswing on a pivot of pin 15, and suitable means is provided to j pressed together by a spring 22 received on enable it to swing back against the inner face ofthe carriage to enable the followerto pass material piled in the guideway when moving the carriage out toward its end. For this purpose, the follower may be provided with a short arm 16 having an opening to receive a removable pin 17 (see Fig. 4). 'When the pin 17 is removed, the follower may be swung back against the face of the carriage.

' I In order to enable the split nut 13 to be opened up to disengage the threads of the feed screw 10, I provide a cam lever 18 which has a cam arm 19 which fits in between two'inclined jaws 2O pivoted at 21jand a bolt 23, The spring 22 holds the jaws yieldingly in position, so that their interrupted threads 24 on their inner sides en-- gage the thread of the screw.

By moving the lever 18 in a direction to move the cam 19 outwardly or toward the right, as viewed in Fig. 4, these jaws will be spread apart to disengage the split nut from the feed screw.

7 WVhen in this position evidently the carriage can be moved freely .backor forth on the guideway.

Corresponding to each feed screw 10 I provide-a substantially vertical feed shaft 25 (see'Fig. 8) and the lower end of this shaft is provided with a friction clutch 11. already referred to. The friction clutch 11. includes a sliding collar 26 which is normally pressed down on the driven collar 27 by means of a weighted lever 28, said lever having two toes 29 (see Fig. 3), the lower one of which engages the outer end of a clutch lever 30 pivoted at 31 and having a short arm 32 with pins 33 attached to a slip collar 34 on the sliding collar 26. V When the carriage 12 has completed its travel, a pin'or abutment 35 upon it engages a pin 86 which projects'down from the clutch lever 30 and this swings the lever 30 downwardly. This movement swings the wei ht 37 on the lever 28 vertically over the pivot 38 of" the yoke having the toes29 and the weight descends on theright'so that'the uppermost toe would engage the endof the lever; 30 and hold this lever depressed, thereby holding the clutch open. The feed screw 10 is driven through spiral gears 39 and 40 (see Fig. 2).

Referring again. to the shredding devices' 5, special attention is called to the bars 6;

these shredderbars are preferably of substantially triangular cross section with the long sides of the triangles disposed outwardly and with vertices of the triangles disposed inwardly. this way each bar presents an inclined face 41 which is 'in-.

I clined at an angle of about degrees (see Fig; 5) tothe circumferential line passing through the axes of the bars. Each face 41 nicely adjusted.

is provided with a shredding blade 42 which cured by suitable countersunk screws 43. Each bar may be adjusted on its vertical axis, which axis lies substantially in the plane'of the long side of the triangle so that the shredding edge 44 of each blade projects slightly beyondthe outer face 45 of the bar which is next in advance with respect to the direction of rotation indicated by the-arrow in Fig. 5. Hence it willbe seen'that as the material being shredded is pressed against the outer face of the drum, the shredding edges 44 will shred the material, whichwill then pass through the gaps 7 intothe inte rior of the, drum. The material passing into the drum passes down through a spider head 46 (see Fig. 1) and falls. into a suitable. hopper 47 near the floor, which if desired .may be of conical form as shown and connected to a duct leading down through the floor to carry the material away.

In order to effect the adjustment of the shredder bars 6, the shredder bars are mounted on the drum in such a way that they are ing the bars in any adjusted position. In

order to adjust the bars with nicety, each bar is provided with two set screws 51 (see Fig. 6) which are disposed slightly eccentric to the longitudinal axis of the bar. These set screws abut against the circumferential outer face 52' of the drum at this point. Each set screw is threaded into the bar and is-provided with a check nut 53. It will be evident that these set screws will hold the bars rigidly in any adjusted position. tightening up one of the set screws and loosening the other, it will. also be evident that the angle of the blades 42 may be very In order to adapt. the machine for operating on different kinds of material I prefer to provide a variable drive mechanism 54 (see Fig. 1) for driving the'verticalfeed shafts 25 which correspond to the different feeding mechanisms in the guideways 8. This variable driving mechanism may be driven from the vertical shaft 5 through bevelgears 55, and may include a horizontal shaft 56 carrying a splined roller 57 which runs on the upper face of a clutch disc 58 carried on the upper end of a main vertical drive shaft 59.- The lower end of.--

this drive shaft 59 may serve as the indi vidual drive shaft for one of the guideways but in addition to this it performs the function of driving a series of cross shaftswhich extend; across the guideways [(see Fig; 2). The cross shaft'GO which is adjacent to 'the ertical shaft 5915s driven-through suitablebevel fgears fil. Each individual feed shaft 2 5'is provided with a bevelgear 62 wh'ich driven by a bevel gear 63 'en one oftheshafts 60 and this bevel gear 63' also operates to drive'abevel gear 64 011 the cross shaft 60next on the left. In this way these cross' 'shafts 60 and their associated bevel gears operate as'adriving train'ex tending all around the drum to drive all of the feeding mechanisms. r

The vertical shaft 5 may be driven by a belt pulley 65 (see Fig. 1') through a pinion 66 and gear wheel 67, and to-prevent extensive 1n uries= to the mechanism theshaft may be driven through shearing-pins 68- whichdrive the shaft 5tl1rough a keyed collar 69.

In the operation of such a machine it may happen that-a foreign substance, for example a'piece of wood or iron, will find its way into the material which is being fed to the Z shredding devices. If that should happen,

, chine-L The side wall 71 of theguideway at this point terminates considerably short of the drum so that'the plate has a 'projeoting portion extending beyond the'wall 71 toward the drum. This plate is strong enough to resist the normal pressure resulting from the normal operation of the machine, but if any hard object should become caught in the shredder blades, the overhanging portion of this plate 70 would immediately give way or fail and permit such an object. to pass out of the guideway. The plate 7 0 may be secured in place by a bolt 72.

In the operation of the'machine, by rotating a hand wheel 73 an inclinedshaft 74: may be rotated, and this Shaft, through the worm 75 and worm-Wheel 7 6, may swing an arm 77 to and fro, the said arm being connected by a drag link 78 with a collar 79 carried by the splined Wheel or roller 57. In this way, the roller 57 may be adjusted nearer to or further from the axis of the shaft 59 to alter the speed of driving of the shaft 59. In the position shown in Fig. 1, the shaft. 59 Will of course be driven at its slowest possible speed. Thehub of the disc 58 is splined on the shaft 59 and is held up against the driving roller 57 With a constant pressure by a weighted lever 58 the forked end of which engages the slip collar 58" on thehn li of thedisc '58. The'weight on this lever is indicatecl at58- 5 'Ishall now describe'the general mode of operation of the machine:The'drum: tfis f driven at a constantspeed through thebelt pulley 65 and: intermediate gearingg-The material to-beshredded is plflCQd 'lIl' the guideways 8- in front of tl1e' follower plates 14. 'Through the variable feedmechanism,

including the roller57 and disc 58, tn'e main vertical feed shaft 59 -Will' be driven.

pin 35" carried. by it strikes the pin'fifi'and trips the clutch 26, 27; 'lVhenthisoccurs, the \veight'37 is carriedover past the deadcenter? over the axis of the" pivot pin 38 and swings down toward the rightside(see Fig.3)- in such away as to h-eld the clutch open. By removing the; pin 1 7the*follower 14 may be swung back out of the Way, and

by operating the cam lever 18 the split nut 13 may be openednpso as to permit the carriage to be slid back to the" outer endof very nicely adjusted. V

By rotating' the hand Wheel 73the'friot-ion roller 5,7 maybe adjusted on the'face of thergu-idewayy vB eans of the set screws v.1

41 the angle oft'he shredder blades may b 6 the disc 58"so'as to alter the-driving speed 7 of the shaft 59. r

If any foreign body should come against the face of the drum, the plate 70 will give Way so as topermit it to pass out of the guideway without injuring the shredding devices (see Fig. 2).

It is understood that. the embodiment of i the invention described herein is only one of the many embodiments this invention may take, and I do not wish to be limited in vthe practice of the invention, nor. in the claims, to the particular embodiment set forth. i

What I claim is: v

1. In a shredding machine, the combination of a rotary drum, a plurality of guideways disposed substantially radially from the axis of'the drum, a plurality of shredding bars extending longitudinally of the drum and carrying blades, feeding mechanism associated with the guideways for feed-' ing the material. to be shredded against the side of the drum, said shredding bars being disposed apart to permit the shreddedmaer a t p s into he n er o f the drum,

i a hopper below the drum for receiving the 1 rial to the drum, a substantially vertical shredded material, and means above the drum for rotating the drum.

2.- In ashredding machine, the combinationof a frame, a rotary drum mounted to rotate onthe frame on a substantially vertical axis, a drum shaft carrying the drum and I extending upwardly therefrom, means-for rotating the shaft, a plurality of feeding mechanisms for feeding the matefeed-shaft with a disc at its upper end for driving the feed devices, and a shaftdriven by the drum shaft and having a splined driving roller engaging the face of the disc and movable across the disc to vary the driving ratio through the disc.

3. In" a shredding machine, the combination of a frame, a rotary drum mounted to rotate on the frame on a substantially 7 vertical. axis, a shaft carrying the drum and extending upwardly therefrom, means for rotating the shaft, a plurality of feeding mechanisms for'feeding the material to the drum, a substantially vertical feed-shaft for driving the feed devices, a variable drivethe material against the faceof the drum,

a substantially vertical feed shaft with shredding material, a guideway for guiding material against the Wall of the shredder drum to shred the same, said guideway having a relatively weak member adjacent the wall of the drum and against which the ma-' terial being shredded is pressed by the force exerted upon the material by the rotation of the drum in the shredding operation, said member operating to fail under an abnormal pressure and thereby prevent injury to the shredding devices carried by the drum.

6. In a machine o-f'the kind described, a shredding drum having a plurality of shredding devices consisting of a bar ofsubstantially triangular cross section, each bar be i-ng mounted on the drum with the long side of the triangle disposed outwardly and the vertex disposed inwardly toward the axis of the drum, a cutter blade attached to an inclined face of each shredder bar,'said bars being mounted so as to rotate on the longitudinal axis substantially coinciding vwith the plane of'thelong side of the triangle.

7. In a shredding machine, the combina- V tion'of a rotary shredder, feeding mechanism for holding the material against the shredder, a driven disc, "a driving roller for the disc, means for pressing the disc against the roller with a constant pressure, and meansfor driving the feeding mechanism from-the disc.

Signed at Los Angeles,. Calif., this 4th day of March, 1925. p ARTHUR R. ADAMSON. 

